Introduction

“Workerism” (operaismo) was a current of Italian Marxism that emerged during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Associated with journals such as Quaderni rossi [Red Notes] and Classe operaia [Working Class], workerist theorists such as Mario Tronti, Sergio Bologna, and Antonio Negri developed a reading of Marx that emphasized the autonomy of labor vis-à-vis capitalist exploitation and state power, thereby departing significantly from the state-centered and reformist policies of the Italian Communist Party (Partito comunista italiano, PCI). The theoretical investigations of the workerists were rooted in an intense practical engagement with the labor struggles that shook Italy during the period of post-1945 industrialization. Many of these struggles, such as the wildcat strikes and labor-police clashes that took place in Turin during the “Hot Autumn” (Autunno caldo) of 1969, were characterized by a high degree of self-organization on the part of workers; they were frequently conducted independently of and against the policies of the PCI and the trade unions.1